An apparatus for forming aligned front and rear hand holes in the front and rear panels of a bag normally has a support having a face on which the two panels of the bag are supported and formed with a a recess of a shape corresponding to that of the hand holes to be cut. A holddown presses the two panels against the support around the recess and an annularly continuous cutter blade is pressed through the panels into the recess. This cuts two identical holes in the panels in perfect alignment with each other. A suction device is normally provided to carry off the piece cut out to form these hand holes.
This procedure can be carried out on the finished bag. It can also be done on two individual panels yet to be welded together at the edges to form a bag or on a tube yet to be cut and welded to form a bag.
The disadvantage of this arrangement is that the subsequent packaging of the bags is frequently complicated. This is particularly the case when the bags are to be packaged together so that the top one can be torn off easily.